When the Swallows Return to Capistrano

The event is locked into modern culture.  “When the swallows come back to Capistrano” go the lyrics of a song written in the 1930s that became a popular hit of the time, recorded by the hit group, The Ink Spots, in 1940.  The annual return of the swallows is used as metaphor for a reliable, regularly occurring event—like tax day!

The bird at the center of this phenomenon is the Cliff Swallow (Petrochelidon pyrrhonota), one species of the group of small, graceful birds that swoop over the landscape catching insects.  They are about five inches long, dark brown except for a white forehead and orange-red cheeks.  Their head and neck appear iridescent in good lighting.  They are common, nesting throughout the United States and wintering in South and Central America.

Cliff Swallow (photo by Dori)

They make mud nests, stuck against a cliff or wall, usually in colonies.  The farther west the birds live, the larger their colonies seem to be, sometimes up to a thousand in one group.  They gather small pellets of mud from nearby shorelines, building gourd-shaped nests that contain many hundreds of such pellets.

Although Cliff Swallows are common, one particular nesting colony has gained an international reputation.  In the southern California town of San Juan Capistrano, the birds have colonized a Spanish mission for hundreds of years.  The mission was built in 1776, one of a chain of missions extending down the California coast.  An earthquake in 1812 reduced most of the mission to ruins.

Ruined or not, Cliff Swallows have long considered the mission their home.  Every year, thousands of the birds have made their way from wintering grounds in Goya, Argentina, to this region for nesting—a 6,000-mile one-way journey.  In pioneer days, shopkeepers drove birds away from their porches, so the birds moved to the mission.  There they found an idea place for nesting.  It lies near the confluence of two local rivers, providing an ample supply of mud.  The broken down walls provide myriads of nesting sites, with relatively little disturbance by people.

Part of the ruins of the Mission at San Juan Capistrano. These bells are rung on March 19, for the festival of the Return of the Swallows (photo by Prayitno)

The birds arrive in mid-March, and the city has declared March 19, also known as St. Joseph’s Day, the Day of the Return of the Swallows.  The annual festival has become a major tourist event, drawing visitors from across the globe.

Unfortunately, recent years have not been good for the Cliff Swallows of San Juan Capistrano.  When work began in the 1990s to restore the mission, the accumulated nests were removed.  Returning birds spread out, looking for other sites—and they found them in the growing development in the area, including the arches of shopping malls and the eaves of nearby homes. For a decades at least, no Cliff Swallows returned to nest in the old mission.

The community has tried several strategies to bring the birds back.  A temporary wall outfitted with artificial nests was installed, with the hope that it would attract birds to the pre-fabricated homes just like humans moving into a new suburban neighborhood.  Recordings of nesting birds are played as another tactic to attract their fellows.  The grounds have even been seeded with ladybugs and other insects to provide an attractive food source.

Swallows in their mud nest (photo by Regevz)

And it may be working.  Cliff Swallows are more frequently seen these days flying in the vicinity of the mission.  And in 2017, two nests were built in the mission.  The executive director of the mission said, “We feel like new mothers.  It’s ridiculous we’re so excited.”  She described the nests as “a miracle to us.”

In a sense, the whole thing is a miracle.  Tiny birds fly thousands of miles between their winter and summer homes.  They find an ideal place to build a nest and raise the next generation.  It is a miracle that nature reprises in the life histories of millions of species across the lands and waters of our beautiful blue and green earth.  And let’s hope that Capistrano’s miracle keeps on happening.

References:

Cornell Lab of Ornithology.  Cliff Swallow.  Available at:  https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Cliff_Swallow/lifehistory#nesting.  Accessed March 18, 2018.

Cuniff, Meghann M.  2017.  Swallows at San Juan Capistrano were driven away by development.  But the birds are slowly coming back.  Los Angeles Times, June 2, 2017.  Available at:  http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-swallow-capistrano-20170602-htmlstory.html.  Accessed March 18, 2018.

Opar, Alisa and Troy Harvey.  2016.  A Homecoming for the Legendary Swallows of Mission San Juan Capistrano?  Audubon, July 7, 2016.  Available at:  http://www.audubon.org/news/a-homecoming-legendary-swallows-mission-san-juan-capistrano.  Accessed March 18, 2018.

Slatta, Richard W.  2001.  The Mythical West:  An Encyclopedia of Legend, Lore, and Popular Culture.  ABCj-CLIO, Santa Barbara, CA.  Available at:  https://books.google.com/books?id=iczSBcAUC5oC&pg=PA334#v=onepage&q&f=false.  Accessed March 18, 2018.

Nation’s First Wildlife Refuge Created (1870)

The entry for just a few days ago—March 14—marks the date that the first National Wildlife Refuge was created, in 1903 (see more here).  But 33 years earlier, on March 18, 1870, the nation’s first wildlife refuge was created.  What’s the difference?  This one was enacted by the State of California, not by the federal government.

Oakland showing Laguna Peralta in 1857 (photo by US Geological Survey)

The first wildlife refuge is Lake Merritt, in the middle of downtown Oakland, California.  The Lake Merritt refuge includes a 155-acre lake and the surrounding parkland.  California declared on March 18, 1870, that “it shall be unlawful for any person to take, kill or destroy, in any manner whatever, the grouse, any species of wild duck, crane, heron, swan, pelican, snip, or any wild animal or game, of any kind of species whatever, upon, in or around Lake Merritt…and within one hundred rods from high water mark….”  Hence, a wildlife refuge!

Lake Merritt started out as a tidal lagoon, known as Laguna Peralta, that was fed by the adjacent Oakland estuary.  Seven small streams emptied into the wetland from upstream.  It was an important resting point for migratory waterfowl traveling the Pacific flyway.

In 1869, the mayor of Oakland, Samuel Merritt, donated the lake and surrounding area to the city for a wildlife preserve.  He was interested in encouraging the development of the adjacent lands and so wanted to stop hunting that he thought discouraged investment.  He also donated funds for construction of a dam across the tidal inlet, with culverts that could control how much water flowed in and out of the lagoon.  Henceforth, the lagoon became a saltwater lake—the largest of its kind in an urban area in the country.

With ongoing urban development, the lake required additional management.  Today the lake is surrounded by retaining walls along the entire 3+ miles of its perimeter.  An island for waterfowl nesting was built in 1925 and four others followed in the 1950s.  The largest have freshwater ponds. These islands are cordoned off from people during nesting times. Water flow was carefully managed to keep the lake surface at a level compatible with the surrounding urban uses.

Flocks of ducks in and around Lake Merritt in 1923 (photo by US National Park Service)

Historic photographs show huge flocks of waterfowl.  For several decades the birds were fed twice daily, no doubt artificially increasing the carrying capacity of the habitat.  With decreased tidal flushing, the lake slowly became filled with silt and has required dredging on occasion.  High nutrient inputs have also led to eutrophication.

In 2002, the City of Oakland passed a $198 million bond issue, with $115 million allocated for the restoration of Lake Merritt.  A series of 50 projects were performed to restore the estuarine connections more directly by removing the old culverts and allowing natural tidal movements.  Other projects sought to improve water quality in the lake, restore incoming streams and marshes, and provide for more pedestrian and bicycle use while reducing vehicle traffic.

Lake Merritt from the air (photo by Dcoetzee)

Lake Merritt is the epitome of an urban park.  The lake and adjacent lands have been developed extensively for outdoor recreation, both associated with nature (a nature center is located on the property) and with cultural and fitness activities.  Whether the park has fulfilled its goal as a wildlife refuge is probably debatable, but its value as a nature-based asset to the local community is outstanding.

References:

City of Oakland.  Lake Merritt, The Jewel of Oakland.  Available at:  http://www2.oaklandnet.com/government/o/opr/s/LakeMerritt/index.htm.  Accessed March 16, 2018.

Lakemerritt.org.  Welcome.  Available at:  https://www.lakemerritt.org/.  Accessed March 16, 2018.

Miller, Amy.  2010.  Polishing Oakland’s Crown Jewl:  Lake Merritt Reborn.  KQED Science, August 20, 2010.  Available at:  https://www.kqed.org/quest/7406/polishing-oaklands-crown-jewel-lake-merritt-reborn.  Accessed March 16, 2018.

Schell, Adrienne.  2016.  Lake Merritt’s Feathered Friends.  Oaklandmomma.com  Available at: http://www.oaklandmomma.com/2016/10/07/lake-merritts-feathered-friends/.  Accessed March 16, 2018

St. Patrick and Ireland’s Snakes

It’s St. Patrick’s Day, time to drink green beer and revive the story that St. Patrick drove all the snakes out of Ireland.  While green beer is real, that story about snakes isn’t.

St. Patrick is the principal patron saint of Ireland.  Living in the late 1400s, he is considered the founder of Christianity in Ireland.  While on a 40-day fast on the top of a hill, he was purportedly attacked by snakes, so he drove them all off a cliff and into the sea.

Saint Patrick (photo by Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam)

With apologies to my Irish friends, that’s just not true.  Ireland has never had any snakes, at least not in modern times.  No fossil evidence exists that snakes ever existed on the island, and certainly none have been there during the period of human habitation.

During the last ice age, the environment of the entire northern European continent was too cold for any reptiles.  When the glaciers melted, both England and Ireland were connected to Europe by a land bridge, which allowed many species to re-colonize the islands.  Species like bears, wild boars and lynx made it back to both islands, and three snake species even made it to England.

But the land bridge between England and Ireland went underwater relatively quickly, ending any continued easy invasion of Ireland by land animals.  One reptile, the common lizard, did make it to Ireland, but no others ever did.  Including no snakes.  Ever.

Ireland’s only native reptile, the common lizard (photo by Alistair Rae)

Well, at least nature never managed to get any snakes to Ireland.  Humans, however, are another story.  During the surge in the Irish economy during the end of the last century, wealthy Irish folks began to import exotic snakes as a symbol of their wealth.  When the economy tanked more recently, many of those pets were abandoned. One good Irish mother took her unemployed son back into her home.  “Of course I’ll take you back home,” she said, “but I’m not taking your boa constructor.”

Today, on occasion, a slithering remnant of better times shows up in the usual places—in abandoned houses, along the roadside, in a trash bin.  Ireland has no regulations requiring the registry of exotic pets like reptiles, so no one knows for sure how many or what kind of reptiles exist in the country.

One non-native lizard species, the slow worm, has established itself.  It was probably introduced purposely in western Ireland in the 1960s and lives in one location in County Clare.  It is legless and is sometimes mistaken for a snake.  But it isn’t.

The slow worm, a legless lizard, now lives in Ireland (photo by Thomas Brown)

Although the story of invasive snakes isn’t as serious in Ireland as it is in southern Florida, for example, this is another story of how humans can bring about the invasion of non-native species, some of which can wreak havoc on native biodiversity.

St. Patrick spawned a couple of other myths that relate to nature.  He is supposedly responsible for making the shamrock a symbol of the country by using it as a metaphor for the idea of the Christian god existing as a triune god—three in one, just like the three leaflets of the common shamrock.  St. Patrick used an ash walking stick, which he stuck in the ground while he spoke with a group of listeners.  He was known for long sermons, and once, it is said, he spoke so long that his walking stick grew roots and sprouted branches, becoming a living tree.

References:

Chozick, Amy.  2013.  Boom Over, St. Patrick’s Isle Is Slithering Again.  New York Times, Marcy 15, 2013.  Available at:  http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/16/world/europe/boom-over-st-patricks-isle-is-slithering-again.html.  Accessed March 15, 2018.

Fecht, Sarah.  2015.  Why Doesn’t Ireland Have Snakes?  Popular Science, March 17, 2015.  Available at:  https://www.popsci.com/why-doesnt-ireland-have-snakes.  Accessed March 15, 2018.

Ireland Calling.  Top myths and legends about St Patrick.  Available at:  http://ireland-calling.com/st-patrick-myths-and-legends/.  Accessed March 15, 2018.

Owen, James.  2008.  Snakeless in Ireland:  Blame Ice Age, Not St. Patrick.  National Georgraphic News, March 13, 2008.  Available at:  https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/03/080313-snakes-ireland.html.  Accessed March 15, 2018.

Amoco Cadiz Runs Aground (1978)

On March16, 1978, an oil tanker—the Amoco Cadiz—broke apart in heavy seas just offshore of Brittany, France.  The event captured the world’s attention and quickly became, and remains, one of the most famous oil spills in modern history.

The Amoco Cadiz was a new ship, only three years old.  It was large, measuring over one thousand feet long and carrying 67 million gallons of oil.  It was owned by an American company, but registered in Liberia.  On this day, the Amoco Cadiz was enroute from the Persian Gulf to Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

Amoco Cadiz sinking off the coast of France (photo by US Coast Guard)

It entered the English Channel on the morning of March 16.  Sea conditions were dreadful, a force-10 gale blowing up heavy seas.  A large wave hit the ship and the steering mechanism failed.  Now floating without control, the ship was blown closer to the French shore.  The crew sent for help, and tug boats arrived to pull the ship to safety.  However, several tow lines from the tug to the ship snapped in the heavy seas.  By late that evening, a tow line was secured, but the ship had drifted dangerously close to shore by that time.  It hit rocks in shallow water, and the engine room flooded.  Soon, it hit the rocks again, tearing the ship into pieces.

By early the next morning, the tanker’s cargo of 67 million gallons of light crude oil had emptied into the ocean, along with thousands of gallons of the ship’s own fuel supply.  Heavy seas continued for several days, continuing the destruction of the ship.  It was declared a total loss and later the French navy destroyed the remnants of the ship with explosives.

Oil deposits in a French bay (photo by NOAA)

The accident happened a few miles off the French coast, and the high seas prevented efforts to contain the 12-mile oil slick that developed.  Scientists estimated that about one-third of the oil eventually reached shore, coating approximately 45 miles of the French coastline. A force of 7000 French soldiers spent months combing the shoreline removing the oil, mostly by hand.

Scientists concluded that the Amoco Cadiz spill had produced the largest biological kill of any spill in history.  Twenty thousand dead birds were recovered (more than twice as many as were recovered from the Deepwater Horizon spill), mostly marine diving birds.  Millions of marine invertebrates—mollusks, sea urchins and others—continued to wash ashore for weeks.  Oyster farms in the area had to destroy 9,000 tons of oysters because of contamination.  The fishing and tourism industries, of course, were negatively affected.

Oil on the shoreline (photo by Gerd Eichmann)

Clean-up activities themselves caused considerable damage.  Trampling of vegetation and soft sediments by workers disrupted biological processes in wetlands.  Salt marshes took many years to recover.

The Amoco Cadiz spill was studied extensively, the first such spill to receive such attention, and protocols for future recovery efforts were based on the results of those studies.  The owner of the ship eventually paid more than $100 million to the French government in penalties.  Although the size of this spill has been surpassed since then (it is the fifth largest oil-tanker spill in history), it remains the poster-image for the consequences of marine transportation of oil.

References:

Gillis, Carly.  2011.  Amoco Cadiz:  A Brief History.  Counterspill, April 10, 2011.  Available at:  http://www.counterspill.org/article/amoco-cadiz-brief-history.  Accessed March 14, 2018.

ITOPF.  Amoco Cadiz, France, 1978.  Available at:  http://www.itopf.com/in-action/case-studies/case-study/amoco-cadiz-france-1978/.  Accessed March 14, 2018.

Mehnazd.  2016.  The Gruesome Amoco Cadiz Oil Spill Incident.  Marine Insight, July 18, 2016.  Available at:  https://www.marineinsight.com/case-studies/the-gruesome-amoco-cadiz-oil-spill-incident/.  Accessed March 14, 2018.

Shpiwreck Log.  Amoco Cadiz.  Available at:  https://www.shipwrecklog.com/log/history/amoco-cadiz/.  Accessed March 14, 2018.

Harold L. Ickes, Secretary of the Interior, Born (1874)

The longest serving Secretary of the Interior in our nation’s history was Harold LeClaire Ickes, born on March 15, 1874 (died 1952).  He served throughout the presidential tenure of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, from 1933 to 1946, one of only two cabinet secretaries who lasted as long in office as Roosevelt himself.

Harold Ickes

Ickes was born in Altoona, Pennsylvania, but moved as a teenager to Chicago with his family.  With undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Chicago, he practiced law and entered the political scene in his adopted hometown.  He was a liberal Republican, with strong commitment to civil rights and social justice, often taking such cases without pay.  He was the president of the Chicago chapter of the NAACP and fought throughout his life for equality of African Americans.

Ickes was an avid outdoorsman. A horse-back trip to Glacier National Park in 1916 solidified his commitment to the natural environment. He told a radio audience in 1934, “I love nature.  I love it in practically every form—flowers, birds, wild animals, running streams, gem-like lakes and towering, snow-clad mountains.”

Roosevelt chose him as Interior Secretary in 1933, wanting to add a Republican—but a liberal one—to his cabinet.  Ickes immediately transformed the Interior Department from a corrupt and ineffective agency, rife with scandal and bribery, into the modern agency we know today.   He was so conscientious about avoiding waste and graft that he became known as “Honest Harold.”

He sought preservation of national treasures by expanding the national park system, but also recognized the necessity of using natural resources by building dams on great rivers, including Grand Coulee Dam on the Columbia.  During the Dust Bowl, he led the formation of the Soil Conservation Service and the Grazing Service, both designed to restore the ecosystems of the Great Plains (learn more about the Soil Conservation Service here) .

Harold Ickes delivers his address at the dedication of Hoover Dam

Sensing Ickes’ capabilities, Roosevelt also put him in charge of the Public Works Administration, the New Deal agency created to pry America out of the Great Depression by providing millions of jobs to carry out civic projects.  Under Ickes leadership, the PWA completed tens of thousands of projects across the country, including building roads, cabins, visitors centers and camp grounds in more than 800 parks.  During his tenure leading the PWA, he oversaw $5 billion in spending, with never a hint of waste or scandal.

His personal life, however, was not as lily-white as his public life.  He was purportedly unfaithful to his wife and harsh, perhaps abusive, to his children.  He suffered from chronic insomnia, making him irritable in both private and public settings.  He took no prisoners in political or policy debates.  His willingness to engage in controversy earned him the nickname as Roosevelt’s “liberal lightning rod.”

References:

Biles, Roger.  1996.  Review of Roosevelt’s Warrior:  Harold L. Ickes and the New Deal.  Humanities and Social Sciences online.  Available at:   http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=506.  Accessed March 12, 2018.

Eleanor Roosevelt Paper Project.  Harold LeClaire Ickes (1874-1952).  George Washington University.  Available at:  https://www2.gwu.edu/~erpapers/teachinger/glossary/ickes-harold.cfm.  Accessed March 12, 2018.

Encyclopedia Britannica.  2018.  Harold L. Ickes.  Available at:  https://www.britannica.com/biography/Harold-L-Ickes.  Accessed March 12, 2018.

ExplorePAhistory.com.  Harold L. Ickes [Environment] Historical Marker.  Available at:  http://explorepahistory.com/hmarker.php?markerId=1-A-342.  Accessed March 12, 2018.

Outside Magazine.  2013.  A History of the Department of the Interior.  Available at:  https://www.outsideonline.com/1859351/history-department-interior.  Accessed March 12, 2018

First National Wildlife Refuge Created (1903)

On March 14, 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt created the nation’s first federal wildlife refuge by signing an executive order designating the Pelican Island, Florida, Bird Preservation Area.  During his presidency, Roosevelt created more than 50 such reserves, the forerunners of the National Wildlife Refuge System that today includes more than 550 protected areas covering 150 million acres.

Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge; this is the original island, showing oyster reefs added to protect the island from erosion (photo by George Gentry, USFWS)

Pelican Island is a small mangrove island in the Indian River waterway of east-central Florida, about 50 miles south of Cape Canaveral.  Although only 5.5 acres when designated as a reserve, the island had long captured the attention of bird watchers—and bird hunters.  Early visitors noted that the trees seemed covered with snow, which was really the profusion of downy chicks of pelicans and other birds and the white plumage of egrets and spoonbills.

Fashion during the Victorian age often featured extravagant use of feathers (photo by Wilhelm Forster, 1893)

Victorian fashions emphasized feathers and other bird parts for hats, broaches, and other decorations.  Because birds had no protection at the time, hunters slaughtered waterfowl in great numbers as the birds gathered for nesting or roosting.  Bird numbers were dropping across the southeast, including a noted drop among the species at Pelican Island.  Outrage over this wasteful harvest led to several laws protecting migratory waterfowl in the early decades of the 20th Century.

But those laws still needed to be enforced, and the federal government was not inclined to pay.  Consequently, the Florida Audubon Society gained permission from the government to employ game wardens to enforce the laws at Pelican Island and elsewhere.  It was dangerous work, however, and two early wardens were murdered while on the job.

That changed when Paul Kroegel took the job.  Kroegel, a German immigrant and local boat builder and pilot, was devoted to the island and its birds.  He came prepared to enforce the laws, armed and ready to do what was needed.  He remained on the job for more than 20 years, creating an atmosphere that favored conservation over exploitation.

Showy plumage, as shown on this breeding Snowy Egret from California, made these birds targets of commercial hunters (photo by Len Blumin)

Pelican Island was a good place for conservation.  Sources suggest that it has the most diverse bird fauna in the United States and that it lies within one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots in the Indian River waterway.  The island itself began to shrink due to both natural forces and excessive wave action by passing boats, and by 2000 was only half its original size.  A massive effort to surround the island with an oyster-shell reef and to plant both seagrass and mangroves has been successful in reversing the loss of area.

A river otter at Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge (photo by Keenan Adams, USFWS Southeast Region)

The Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge has also grown from the original island.  It now encompasses more than 4000 acres of similarly important mangrove islands and other wetlands.  The area is also designated as wilderness and as a National Historic Landmark because of its significance as the first federal wildlife preserve.

References:

The Conservation Fund.  Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge.  Available at:  http://www.conservationfund.org/projects/pelican-island-national-wildlife-refuge.  Accessed March 13, 2017.

Indian River County Main Library.  Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge.  Available at:  http://www.irclibrary.org/pdf/pelicanislandrefuge.pdf.  Accessed March 13, 2017.

Pelican Island Preservation Society.  The Refuge.  Available at:  http://www.firstrefuge.org/the-refuge/.  Accessed March 13, 2017.

Reffalt, William.  2003.  Pelican Island.  USFWS informal document.  Available at:  https://www.fws.gov/refuges/centennial/pdf2/pelicanIsland_reffalt.pdf.  Accessed March 13, 2017.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.  History of Pelican Island.  Available at:  https://www.fws.gov/refuge/pelican_island/about/history.html.  Accessed March 13, 2017.

National Elephant Day, Thailand

The national symbol of Thailand is the elephant, specifically the “white elephant.”  The elephant was declared Thailand’s national animal on March 13, 1963.  Later, in 1998, when the country decided that elephant protection required greater attention, it designated the same date—March 13—as National Elephant Day.

Asian Elephant (photo by Rakeshkdogra)

Thailand’s elephants are members of the Asian elephant species (Elephas maximus), the smaller of the earth’s two elephant species.  Asian elephants can be domesticated and have been used by humans for thousands of years to perform work.  The major role in Thailand has been in logging, where elephants were used to pull downed logs from the forest to places where they were further processed.

Beyond their use as work animals, elephants play an important cultural role in Thailand.  As Buddhists, Thai citizens consider many animals sacred, including the elephant.  The Buddhist god Ganesh, the symbol of wisdom, success and good luck, has a human body with an elephant head.  White elephants, which are not albino but simply a lighter shade than the typical elephant, have been kept by Thai kings for centuries to symbolize their authority to reign.  The white elephants was placed on the Thai flag in the early 1800s and remained there for a century.

For a century, from 1817 to 1917, tdhe Thai flag included a white elephant (photo by Tango and Sodacan)

Elephants were once abundant in the lush Thai forests, estimated to have numbered about 100,000 in 1900.  Today fewer than 2,000 remain in the wild, affected mostly by the loss of habitat, along with overhunting for ivory.  The species is classified as endangered by IUCN and is now protected throughout Thailand.   Most wild elephants live in national parks or other preserves of natural forest.

About 3,000 elephants are held privately.  Since logging of natural forests was outlawed in Thailand, however, the primary use of elephants in the forest industry has disappeared, leaving tourism as the predominant way in which elephants are used.  Conditions for elephants in the tourist trade vary widely, from cruel and abusive handlers (especially in large cities) to centers that focus on ethical and humane interactions between people and elephants.  Because of the long association between people and elephants, tourism is a major industry both for Thai citizens and for foreign visitors.

Asian elephants being bathed at the Thai Elephant Conservation Center (photo by Adam Jones)

The principal elephant conservation program is operated through the Thai Elephant Conservation Center, a government-owned facility created in 1993 by the king.  The center has about 50 elephants and offers opportunities for people to interact with and learn about elephants.

National Elephant Day was first celebrated in 1999.  According to the organization Thailand Elephants, “[t]he day was made to celebrate and show how significant elephants are to Thailand, how the Thai culture depends on elephants and also to promote awareness about protecting and conserving the Thai elephants and their natural habitat.”

References:

Chiangrai Times.  2014.  National Elephant Day Celebrated in Thailand.  March 13, 2014.  Available at:  http://www.chiangraitimes.com/national-elephant-day-celebrated-in-thailand.html.  Accessed march 12, 2018.

Elephant Conservation Center.  The Elephant Conservation Center.  Available at:  http://www.thailandelephant.org/en/index.html.  Accessed March 12, 2018.

Elephant Nature Park.  Facts about Elephants.  Available at:  https://www.elephantnaturepark.org/about/facts-about-elephants/.  Accessed March 12, 2018.

McCrea, Kerri. 2017.  The National Elephant Day 2017!  Available at:  https://www.thailandelephants.org/single-post/2017/03/13/Thai-National-Elephant-DayChang-Thai- -2017.  Accessed March 12, 2018.

Siwalai.  Elephants in Thailand: Past and Present.  Thaiways Magazine.  Available at:  https://www.thaiwaysmagazine.com/thai_article/2711_elephant_royal/elephant_royal.html.  Accessed March 12, 2018.

Everett Horton Patents the Telescoping Fishing Rod (1887)

In puritanical rural Connecticut, fishing on Sunday was very nearly a mortal sin.  But Everett Horton, a hoop maker at a Bristol crinoline undergarment factory, wanted badly to fish on Sunday.  In order to slip unnoticed out of town and to the stream, he invented a telescoping fishing rod.  On March 8, 1887, he received a patent for his invention—US Patent 359153 A—and the rest is history.

1927 ad for Everett Horton’s Telescoping Fishing Rod

Horton’s patent application doesn’t mention that his purpose was to dupe his church-going neighbors.  Rather, it was to “produce a light and compact rod of superior convenience, elasticity, and durability, and one in which the line is protected against entanglement throughout the length of the rod.”  Unlike typical fishing rods, on which the exposed line is guided through rings mounted at intervals along the rod, Horton’s rod had hollow tubes that carried the line inside, protected from tangling.  Every angler of modest skill (like me) has experienced the recurring frustration of tangled lines.

Reportedly, Horton walked into a bank in Bristol the next year and asked to see the manager.  In the meeting, Horton produced the fishing rod from his pants leg, to the manager’s alarm.  When asked why he had made such a thing, Horton replied, “So you can sneak off fishing whenever you like, even on Sunday.”

He got the needed loan and went on to found the Horton Manufacturing Company.  And to make a fortune.  The fishing rod was instantly popular and by 1900 the Bristol Steel Rod was the most popular fishing rod in the United States.  The rod was well-made and performed its intended function—to hide an angler’s intention and keep the line straight—but angling purists didn’t like it (of course).  Nonetheless, Horton kept manufacturing his rods, eventually expanding the company into a producer of diverse metal household items.

The Pocket-Fisherman had to have an inspiration, and maybe we’ve just found it.

References:

Anctil, Philip.  (Nothing Up Your Sleeve) It May Be A Bristol Steel Rod.  Fishing Talks.  Available at:    http://www.fishingtalks.com/nothing-up-your-sleeve-it-may-be-a-bristol-steel-rod-569.html.  Accessed March 7, 2017.

New England Historical Society.  Everett Horton Goes Fishing for a Fortune.  Available at:  http://www.newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/everett-horton-goes-fishing-fortune/.  Accessed March 7, 2017.

U.S. Patent Office.  Patent 359153 A.  Available at:  https://www.google.com/patents/US359153.  Accessed March 7, 2017.

Luther Burbank Born (1849)

Luther Burbank, perhaps the most prolific plant breeder in human history, was born on March 7, 1849, in Lancaster, Massachusetts (died 1926).  Although he had very little formal education and was considered un-scientific by his peers, he managed to revolutionize American horticulture during the first decades of the 20th Century.

Burbank was raised on a farm, the 13th of 15 children in the family.  He was a curious and resourceful child, inventing machines and tools to ease the work of the farm.  His father died when Burbank was 21, allowing him to use his inheritance to buy a small farm of his own and begin plant-breeding experiments.  His success began with a potato whose seeds he planted, then chose the most promising and quickly grew large, firm potatoes.  With the $150 profit from selling the resulting seeds, he moved to Santa Rosa, California, to be near several brothers who lived there.

Luther Burbank in 1901, at his experimental farm in California (photo by Liberty Hyde Bailey)

He began experimenting with plant varieties in earnest on his small tract in Santa Rosa.  His talent for selecting superior plants combined with his skill at grafting, allowed him to make rapid progress in evaluating and replicating desired strains.  At one time, he had 3,000 experiments in progress.  He marketed his new plants through a catalogue, “New Creations in Fruits and Flowers,” beginning in 1893.

During his long 55-year career as a plant breeder, he introduced more than 800 new types of plants—fruits, nuts, grains, vegetables and flowers.  He developed a russet potato, now called the Russet Burbank Potato, that today comprises most of the commercial potatoes used in the United States.  He developed a spineless cactus for use as livestock forage in dry climates.  He bred the Shasta daisy.

Luther Burbank with his spineless cactus, 1908

Burbank became friends with Thomas Edison and Henry Ford, like him innovators in their fields of endeavor.  After Burbank’s death in 1926, Edison and Ford continued to fight for patent protection for plant breeds, eventually achieving a law that extended patents to plants in 1930; Burbank received several patents posthumously to celebrate that event.

Burbank’s goal was not to become wealthy—he lived a notoriously frugal and simple life.  Rather, it was to help humanity by developing plants that could provide better food and more pleasant gardens.  Working with nature, not against it, was his fundamental approach.  As he said:  “If you violate Nature’s laws you are your own prosecuting attorney, judge, jury, and hangman.” On the positive side, he explained his joy in his work at a lecture in San Francisco in 1925:

Luther Burbank’s drawing of variation in the size of walnuts. The variation was the source of breeding improved crops.

“What a joy life is when you have made a close working partnership with nature, helping her to produce for the benefit of mankind new…fruits in form, size, color, and flavor never before seen on this globe; and grains of enormously increased productiveness, whose fat kernels are filled with more and better nourishment, a veritable store-house of perfect food—new food for all the world’s untold millions for all time to come.”

And as we all know, hungry people have bigger, more immediate problems than worrying about biodiversity conservation.  So, helping people live better, more secure lives—as Luther Burbank did through his plant breeding work—leads inevitably to a more sustainable world that elevates conservation to a priority.

References:

BrainyQuote.  Luther Burbank Quotes.  Available at:  https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/l/luther_burbank.html. Accessed March 6, 2017.

Famous Scientists.  Luther Burbank.  Available at:  https://www.famousscientists.org/luther-burbank/.  Accessed March 6, 2017.

Luther Burbank Home & Gardens.  Luther Burbank.  Available at:  http://www.lutherburbank.org/.  Accessed March 6, 2017.

Murphy, Dennis.  2007.  Plant Breeding and Biotechnology:  Societal Context and the Future of Agriculture.  Cambridge University Press.  Available at:  https://books.google.com/books?id=dCe6JNEplIwC&pg=PA38#v=onepage&q&f=false.  Accessed March 6, 2017.

Wieseler, Wayne.  2012.  Biology:  Luther Burbank, 1849-1926.  Western Sonoma County Historical Society.  Available at:  Accessed March 6, 2017.http://www.wschsgrf.org/articles/biographylutherburbank1849-1926.

Nature’s Famous Leapers

It is leap-day, and what better time to celebrate the incredible feats of leaping that some of our natural friends perform.

Let’s start with the obvious, lemmings leaping off cliffs.  Bad news:  That’s an unfortunate myth.  Lemmings are rodents with enormous powers of reproduction.  Consequently, every few years their populations grow too large for their current habitat.  In response, large groups migrate together in search of a new home.  They are good swimmers, and they don’t let obstacles get in the way.  But, they don’t launch themselves off cliffs in apparent mass suicides.  That myth comes from an old nature film in which the film crew actually pushed lemmings off a cliff for the dramatic effect.  Bad behavior by humans, but not by lemmings.

Lemming (photo by Sander van der Wel)

Humans have also engaged in similar behavior to outwit the game animals they used for food, clothing and tools, specifically the American bison.  Native peoples living on the plains would herd bison to the edge of a cliff and then drive them over the edge, collecting the dead animals from the base of the cliff.  Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump in southwestern Alberta is an UNESCO World Heritage Site devoted to the aboriginal practice conducted there.  The site was used for over 600 years, demonstrating the sustainability of traditional, communal hunting techniques.

Mark Twain’s famous leaper was a bullfrog, like this one (photo by Carl D. Howe)

But let’s talk about leapers that don’t rely on an assist from humans.  Mark Twain wrote a famous story about one such leapers—The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.  A competition by the same name goes on to this day.  The world champion is Rosie the Ribeter, an American bullfrog, that jumped a total of 21 feet, 5.75 inches in a combined three-leap event in 1986.  But the true world record, we’re told, is a South African frog of unknown heritage that jumped more than 33 feet in one leap.

Artist’s conception of a flying fish (artist unknown)

Then there are the flying fishes.  Flying fish are a family of more than 40 species that can grow to about 18 inches long. The fish doesn’t actually fly, it leaps.  Its streamlined shape allows it to swim fast, explode from the surface and glide along, supported on wing-like pectoral fins.  A single leap can go farther than 600 feet, but the fish can extend the flight by falling to the surface, flexing its tail and returning to the air.  Extended leaps like this can go farther than 1300 feet.

Among mammals, the champion seems to be the red kangaroo.  These 200-pound leapers of Australia move in a series of leaps, with a consistent hop that goes 6 feet high and 25 feet long.  But on occasion they can leap much farther, up to 45 feet in a single bound.

Red kangaroo (photo by PotMart186)

The champion of all leapers is, of course, the flea.  This tiny insect routinely jumps 5 inches up and 8 inches out.  But record flights of fleas are as far as 19 inches, about 300 times its body length.  Comparing that to a 6-foot-tall human, that would be a leap of 1800 feet, or about one-third of a mile!  Eat your heart out, Spiderman.

References:

Encyclopedia Britannica.  Do Lemmings Really Commit Mass Suicide?  Available at:  https://www.britannica.com/story/do-lemmings-really-commit-mass-suicide.  Accessed February 23, 2018.

The flea, world-champion leaper (photo by CDC/Janice Haney Carr)

FleaScience.  How far and high can fleas jump?  Available at:  http://fleascience.com/flea-encyclopedia/life-cycle-of-fleas/adult-fleas/how-do-fleas-move/how-far-and-high-can-fleas-jump/.  Accessed February 23, 2018.

Lindsay.  2012.  Let the games begin!  Amphibian Rescue & Conservation Project.  Available at:  http://amphibianrescue.org/tag/american-bullfrog/.  Accessed February 23, 2018.

National Georgaphic.  Flying Fish.  Available at:  https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/fish/group/flying-fish/.  Accessed February 23, 2018.

National Geographic.  Red Kangaroo.  Available at:  https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/r/red-kangaroo/.  Accessed February 23, 2018.

UNESCO.  Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump.  Available at:  http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/158.  Accessed February 23, 2018.

This Month in Conservation

March 1
Yellowstone National Park Established (1872)
March 2
Theodore Geisel, or Dr. Seuss, Born (1904)
March 3
World Wildlife Day and Creation of CITES (1973)
March 3
Isle Royale National Park Authorized (1931)
March 4
Hot Springs National Park Established (1921)
March 5
Lynn Margulis, Evolutionary Biologist, Born (1938)
March 6
Martha Burton Williamson, Pioneering Malacologist, Born (1843)
March 7
Luther Burbank Born (1849)
March 8
Everett Horton Patents the Telescoping Fishing Rod (1887)
March 9
The Turbot War Begins (1995)
March 10
Cape Lookout National Seashore Established (1966)
March 11
Save the Redwoods League Founded (1918)
March 12
Girl Scouts Founded (1912)
March 12
Charles Young, First African American National Park Superintendent, Born (1864)
March 13
National Elephant Day, Thailand
March 14
First National Wildlife Refuge Created (1903)
March 15
Harold L. Ickes, Secretary of the Interior, Born (1874)
March 16
Amoco Cadiz Runs Aground (1978)
March 17
St. Patrick and Ireland’s Snakes
March 18
Nation’s First Wildlife Refuge Created (1870)
March 19
When the Swallows Return to Capistrano
March 20
“Our Common Future” Published (1987)
March 21
International Day of Forests
March 22
World Water Day
March 23
Sitka National Historical Park Created (1910)
March 24
John Wesley Powell, Western Explorer, Born (1834)
March 25
Norman Borlaug, Father of the Green Revolution, Born (1914)
March 26
Marjorie Harris Carr, Pioneering Florida Conservationist, Born (1915)
March 26
Kruger National Park Established (1898)
March 27
Trans-Alaska Pipeline Begun (1975)
March 28
Joseph Bazalgette, London’s Sewer King, Born (1819)
March 29
Niagara Falls Stops Flowing (1848)
March 30
The United States Buys Alaska (1867)
March 31
Al Gore, Environmental Activist and U.S. Vice President, Born (1948)
January February March April May June July August September October November December